Day: July 7, 2014

The post-WWII era shall be spoofed again by author “Eric Jonrosh” and an all-star cast, as IFC announced Monday it’d ordered a second six-episode miniseries from Funny or Die’s “Spoils” franchise. The Spoils Before Dying will bring back Jonrosh (Will Ferrell) to open and close each of the six episodes in summer 2015 with his own book-to-TV commentary. The rest of the cast has not been announced. The Spoils of Babylon aired at the beginning of 2014, starring Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Tobey Maguire, Haley Joel Osment, Tim Robbins, Michael Sheen, Kristen Wiig, Ferrell and more. This next novel adaptation, The Spoils Before...

Forty years ago, NBC assembled a group of “Not Ready For Prime-Time Players” for a live televised sketch comedy show on Saturday nights. Can they start from scratch again in 2014? The Comic’s Comic showed you the new NBC sketch comedy pilot cover sheet last month. Now take a look at your — well, what will we call them, ready for primetime? how about just Primetime Players — for the 2014 NBC Untitled Sketch Comedy Pilot. Much like the original SNL, this new crop of comedians takes more than a bit of its influence from Chicago and Toronto! Assembled...

While Jimmy Fallon and his Tonight Show crew filmed a week of shows in Orlando last month, they took out some time to open up the ol’ viewer mailbag, and Fallon answered a question about his biggest fears when he was just starting out as a stand-up comedian. Would you believe he said bombing? Fallon said you have to learn to not fear the fear of bombing, but instead, to embrace it. Roll the clip! Coincidentally or not, when Fallon says you can ask any comedian for his or her worst gig bombing story, he and his show already...

Mike Flinn (@realmikeflinn) isn’t just a podcast producer and engineer; he’s also an avid fan of the form. “My Pod Week” recaps and reviews the many varied comedy podcasts Flinn listened to or attended live tapings of during the previous week. Enjoy! NERD POKER: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS WITH BRIAN POSEHN & FRIENDS (#82 Kotter Talk) Brian Posehn has been playing Dungeons & Dragons with the same group of friends for a decade now and if you listen to his podcast you’ll know why. Blaine Capatch, Ken Daly, Sarah Guzzardo, and Gerry Duggan roll the dice and tour around the...

Before you even try to answer that question, consider this: Should you even be a comedian? I mean, as a profession. As in, dive into a career as a professional comedian. If that’s your goal, then let me steer you toward professional stand-up comedian Paul Ogata (past winner of the San Francisco Comedy Competition and teller of jokes on Live at Gotham and The Late Late Show, among other credits), who drew up this flowchart to help guide you to your appropriate destiny. As Ogata wrote, introducing his handiwork last week: “This week I’ve met at least half a dozen people who...